Chapter 55: The Use of Hokuto
"Mr. Gin, this is over."
As Tsuchimikado Natsume spoke, several talismans flew from the hands of Tsuchimikado Hirotaka and Tsuchimikado Chizuru and attached themselves to Gin Tsumugi's body.
In an instant, the spiritual power inside him sank into absolute stillness.
It felt like a dried up well whose last drop had already been drained away. No matter how he tried to stir it, nothing answered. Not even the faintest ripple.
Gin lowered his eyes to the talismans clinging to his clothes and gave a quiet, almost amused smile.
"You're thorough. The [Immovable Binding Technique] wasn't enough, so you added sealing talismans strong enough to restrain even a National class onmyoji. You really do think highly of me."
"Naturally."
Tsuchimikado Hirotaka kept his eyes fixed on Gin, his expression still grave. Even with Gin's spiritual power sealed and his limbs tightly bound by the chains of the [Immovable Binding Technique], Hirotaka did not relax in the slightest.
He spoke with complete sincerity.
"With only your ancient style [Fire Boundary Spell] and [Demon Purifying Talisman], there are already very few among the professional class onmyoji I know who can stand beside you. If the three of us had not joined forces, then even one of us alone would have lost."
He paused, then let out a low breath.
"No wonder Miyoshi Jugo said you could step into the ranks of National class onmyoji within three years. In my opinion, that estimate is already conservative."
There was genuine emotion in his voice.
A boy this young had already surpassed decades of hard work from people like them. When faced with that kind of talent, even an experienced veteran of Onmyodo had no choice but to admit what he saw.
"You overpraise me."
Gin's tone remained calm.
Then he raised his head, and the faint smile on his lips did not fade.
"But I'm in a hurry, so I won't waste any more time with you."
The moment those words fell, the atmosphere changed.
Tsuchimikado Hirotaka, Tsuchimikado Chizuru, and Tsuchimikado Natsume all became sharply alert.
None of them believed Gin Tsumugi was the type to bluff. If he said he had a way out, then he had one. The only question was what they had overlooked.
Could it be... Zenki and Koki?
The same thought flashed through Hirotaka and Chizuru at once, and both felt their hearts sink.
Previously, those two kishin had obeyed Gin without the slightest hesitation. If he truly had a way to summon them here, then this situation could turn upside down in an instant.
As if he had read their thoughts, Gin said evenly, "The Tsuchimikado do not only have Zenki and Koki."
Before the meaning of those words could fully settle, he spoke again.
"Release my bonds, Hokuto."
Hokuto?!
Natsume's eyes widened.
She knew she had not misheard. The name that had left Gin's mouth was without a doubt Hokuto.
Hokuto was not some common shikigami. It was a guardian beast passed down through the Tsuchimikado Clan for a thousand years, a true dragon that had served generation after generation of clan heads. Within the Tsuchimikado Clan, aside from her father Tsuchimikado Yasuzumi, only she could command it to any real degree. Even then, every use consumed an enormous amount of spiritual power.
For an outsider to call that name so casually should have been absurd.
And yet, the scene that followed was every bit as unbelievable as when Zenki and Koki had knelt before Gin and addressed him as Master.
From the sky came a heavy roar.
Then Hokuto descended.
With a thunderous crash, the brown gold dragon landed beside Gin, its enormous body coiling around him in a protective spiral. It lowered its head, not in hostility, but in careful inspection, sniffing at him the way a long lost beast might test the scent of someone it had waited for across a thousand years.
Then Hokuto froze.
The next second, its eyes lit up with unmistakable joy.
"Awoo...!"
Its cry rang bright and clear through the air.
Like a dog that had finally found its owner again, Hokuto pressed its massive head against Gin's cheek, rubbing against him with naked affection. At the same time, it did not forget the order it had been given. A surge of immense spiritual power erupted from its body.
The sealing talismans attached to Gin shattered at once.
The chains of the [Immovable Binding Technique] snapped apart with a sharp metallic crack.
And then Hokuto turned its head.
Its gaze landed on Natsume, its former master. There was no warmth in its eyes now, only vigilance and wariness, like a beast guarding what mattered most.
A chill ran through Natsume's body.
At the same moment, the contract between her and Hokuto collapsed completely.
The shikigami the Tsuchimikado had raised for a thousand years had chosen someone else.
Gin stepped free of the broken chains and loosened his shoulders.
Around him, Natsume, Chizuru, and Hirotaka remained stunned. For several breaths, none of them could speak.
Then Hirotaka remembered the words Gin had said moments before.
The Tsuchimikado do not only have Zenki and Koki.
Something clicked in his mind.
"Natsume," Gin said, not even glancing back. "Hokuto is no ordinary shikigami. The way you used it before, sending it to charge and clash directly, was far too crude."
As he spoke, his hands formed a set of unfamiliar, intricate seals.
They were strange and difficult to follow, yet at the same time they carried an odd sense of practiced familiarity, as though his fingers had traced those movements countless times before.
Hokuto responded at once.
Its physical body dissolved into translucent brilliance and wrapped itself around Gin's form. In the blink of an eye, it became a phantom dragon coiling over his body like a heavenly guardian. A thousand years of accumulated spiritual power flowed directly into him.
The pressure that burst outward made the air itself feel heavy.
Tsuchimikado Hirotaka stared bitterly.
"The spiritual power Hokuto accumulated over a thousand years... it has all attached itself to his body."
As a member of the Tsuchimikado Clan, he suddenly felt the sting of humiliation.
They had inherited Hokuto for a millennium, yet their understanding of it was still inferior to an outsider's.
Natsume was equally dazed.
As Hokuto's previous master, she had never imagined it could be used this way. Compared to what Gin was doing now, her old method of simply ordering it to attack really was nothing more than crude force.
Tsuchimikado Chizuru's thoughts were even simpler.
If anyone dared say now that Gin Tsumugi had no connection whatsoever to the Tsuchimikado Clan, she would refuse to believe it no matter what.
Gin closed his eyes for a brief moment, feeling the vast spiritual power coursing through him.
He remembered.
A thousand years ago, in that Heian dream, when "he" had still been weak, when exorcising monsters had often pushed him to the edge of exhaustion, it was to solve the problem of insufficient spiritual power that he and Kamo no Tadataka had gone through great hardship to find the infant Hokuto.
At the time, the plan had seemed perfect.
Only later had "he" realized the flaw.
Dragons, like many monsters, possessed absurdly long lifespans. Their growth was slow beyond reason. By the time Hokuto matured enough to be of real use, either he would already be long dead, or he would have grown strong enough that he no longer needed such help.
Still, Hokuto had continued growing.
And now, after a thousand years, that strength had finally ripened.
Gin opened his eyes.
He raised a hand.
"Spirit Word: [Prohibit]."
"Spirit Word: [Bind]."
With Hokuto's thousand years of stored spiritual power layered over his own, even those plain, straightforward Spirit Word techniques swelled to a terrifying level. Their might was no weaker than the [Fire Boundary Spell] or the [Immovable Binding Technique] used earlier.
Tsuchimikado Hirotaka, Tsuchimikado Chizuru, and Tsuchimikado Natsume did not even have time to draw fresh talismans.
Their bodies locked up at once.
An invisible force slammed down on them, sealing and binding them where they stood.
The battle had turned around in a single move.
.....
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